Methodology

This page offers links to the methodologies for each Doing Business topic and to the Doing Business 2019 questionnaire instruments. Visitors can also download several research papers (and the original datasets) that contributed to this project.

In recent years, Doing Business introduced improvements to all of its indicator sets. In Doing Business 2015, Resolving Insolvency introduced new measures of quality, while Getting Credit and Protecting Minority Investors broadened their existing measures. In Doing Business 2016, Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts also introduced new measures of quality, and Trading across Borders introduced a new case scenario to increase the economic relevance. In Doing Business 2017, Paying Taxes introduced new measures of postfiling processes and Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts added gender components. For the details on the Doing Business methodology changes, please view the Ease of Doing Business metrics.

Each methodology expansion was recalculated for one year to provide comparable indicator values and scores for the previous year. Rankings are calculated for Doing Business 2019 only. Year-to-year changes in the number of economies, number of indicators and methodology affect the comparability of prior years.